[Dixielandjazz] PORI, FINLAND JAZZ FESTIVAL

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/12/03 7:24:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
barbonestreet at earthlink.net writes:

> 
> Musical content. "How little we know."
> 
> For you Texans on the list, The State of Texas will be represented by
> the TCU Jazz Ensemble. Here is a short blurb from the festival, which
> sounds like a lot of fun. I suspect Ambassador of Culture, Tom Wiggins,
> knows quite a bit more about this event.
> 
> Cheers,
> Steve
> 

Slow down guys:

I am still trying to catch up with the simultaneous booking thread with a 
competent reply that should stop the hostilities among my good buddies on this 
list.

But I will jump into this one quickly because I have played at the Great Pori 
Jazz festival and in almost every venue there, from a Second line street 
parade for the President of Finland and the Mayor of Pori leading up to a Gala 
Presidential Dinner Dance Ball, where Saint Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band drew 
the honors of performing.  It is indeed a lot of fun and a Great event to play.

We were also selected to do a half time show at a major Soccer Game, and the 
grand opening and dedication ceremonies for the New performing arts center and 
Entertainment complex, being built in the city.  B.B. King and Phil Collins 
laid the cornerstones for the site.  Major television coverage and made instant 
Stars of our act all over Finland.  We were the opening act for B.B. King and 
Phil Collins & the Gypsy Kings shows to 30,000 people a show.  Fantastic 
reception is all I can say.

One day 3000 people sat glued in their seats during a thirty minute Hail 
Storm and just put up their umbrellas to bounce off the golf ball size hail 
stones, these fans take their jazz seriously and they do know what they like.  If 
they don't like what they hear they will walk away and go see another show 100 
yards down the street.

Just for the record the talent lineup for that Festival was: that I can 
immediately remember without going back and digging out the program.

Tony Bennett, Phil Collins 21 piece Jazz orchestra, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, 
Maria Schneider Orchestra, Barbara Hendricks & Monty Alexander, The Leningrad 
Cowboys, The Blues Brothers, Roomful of Blues, Michael Brecker Group, Marisa 
Monte, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Kit McClure Band, Slide Hampton Milt Jackson, 
Chick Corea, Martin, Medeski & Wood, Marlena Shaw & Jon Faddis Band (Tribute to 
Ella Fitzgerald), The Gypsy Kings, and Ted Kurson in case any of you ever 
wondered where he went to, he lives there and has for thirty years now and is one 
of the organizers for the festival, so naturally he has a steady good paying 
gig.
  
It also had a host of Finnish Jazz bands, and Cuban bands and European jazz 
acts of all kinds, and yes it had it's share of totally terrible bands as well.

Last year the Festival Producer got snookered very badly by a scoundrel 
booking agent who sold him a major act that he did not represent and could not 
deliver, the festival paid him up front a lot of money that they never recovered 
which severely crippled the Festival financially for last year.  Which would 
probably attest to the fact that the attendance records Steve quoted for last 
year are so much lower than they were a few years back when we played there.  

It is very difficult for any major Festival to keep getting bigger and better 
every year, with so many Legitimate Headline Acts dying and breaking up into 
alternate Jam session groups etc.  All Star Bands that have no real draw power 
to sell tickets no matter how great the individual players happen to be.

Therefore this give legitimacy and credence to booking tried and true 
Legendary Names of Bands to sell tickets and garner publicity to attract paying 
customers to the event even if the groups who show up are inferior imitations of 
what used to be.  The theory is that most of the folks who ever saw the original 
groups are dead and gone anyway, and there is not much to write about with 
the new generation of instant Stars created by record labels.

We do live in some perilous times for music folks, but if all of us get off 
our duffs we can make some changes and start to turn some of it around and 
really preserve our OKOM, I do believe we spend more time fighting and venting our 
frustrations on line than we do going out and making something happen to 
cause the reinstatement of LIVE MUSIC.

We were booked there by the Director of the Festival who had never heard us 
or even heard a CD, and his staff voted us the best act at the entire Festival, 
and our acceptance by the Finnish audience was thrilling to say the least.  
To the best of my knowledge there was not one other OKOM act on the bill 
anywhere, and I am certain it is because nobody though about approaching them to 
book their band in Finland.

That year the event drew 500,000 paid fans for 13 days, not bad for a city 
with only 48,000 population.  It is the biggest event in Finland as I recall, 
and is the event that put Pori on the Map internationally many years ago.  The 
festival is run very well and the people and their hospitality are fabulous.  
It is in the list of the top ten International Jazz Festivals, and is more 
important to play than 90% of the USA OKOM festivals.  They take their Jazz and 
their music very seriously in European countries and the fans are far more 
sophisticated and hard to please than here at home.  I know because I work there 
every year and if we were not very, very good we would not be invited back the 
competition for those festivals is horrendous at best.

That however is not to say that they do not buy some acts for NAME Reputation 
Only, like Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Golden Gate Singers, Jubilee 
Singers, Dixie Hummingbirds, etc., who are generally pathetic reproductions of the 
original acts of yesteryear.  They have become institutions, and the use of 
their names is all the festivals want to get media attention from critics 
musicologist, and reviewers for pre festival publicity to create the image that 
they are bringing Legendary American jazz and Blues and Gospel Acts to the event. 
  

The public is continuously short changed by having a bunch of youngsters 
showing up to play some BS charts trying to imitate the original players of the 
act that died long before the current members were even born in some cases.

I once had a festival program the Dixie Hummingbirds Legendary Gospel act to 
follow my show to a ten thousand member audience,  they trotted out two old 
fellows, one a guitar player about 85 years young Bless his heart, and one of 
the last surviving singers about 88
and I swear to God they plugged a  $20.00 Radio Shack cassette deck into a 
Fender guitar amp and put a microphone in front of it and fed it through the 
gigantic Concert, PA system and the guitar player played along with the tired 
worn out cassette and the singer stood up there and sang to that crap.

I was there when the very disappointed Promoter paid them $7,500.00 for that 
pitiful performance because he had signed a contract thinking he was getting 
the legendary professional group.  He has also paid for their R/T International 
airfares and hotels and fed them two great meals a day for two days before 
they performed.

So you see even the biggest and best Festivals can get snookered by 
unscrupulous agents and groups trying to make a buck off the Legendary Name of Any Act.

If I had charts for Louis and Kid Ory's stuff I could put together a band in 
two hours that could go play them and make money if I was that kind of agent, 
promoter but I have ethics that are unquestionable in the areas of 
authenticity and representation, and that is what has made me very successful 
Internationally for so long.

"Nothing but the Best and Later for the Rest"...  John Lee Hooker 1973

I started selling Rolls Royce's and Lamborghinis, and Ferraris in 1973 and 
have not sold a Volkswagen or Fiat since then.  Musically speaking of course. 
Never was a car salesman, although I probably could have made a lot more money 
selling cars, or being a Traveling Revivalist across America like my Mother 
wanted me to be.  My daddy wanted me to come home and work in his gas station and 
make something out of myself.

Nawh, I discovered Girls and Whisky and went down the road of Sin and 
Debauchery, moved into the House of the Rising Sun and became a musician to make 
something out of myself.


To those of you who hate it when I write too long posts I apologize, just 
delete it if you find no interest, to those of you who feel I have valid 
contributions to make to the list from time to garnered from my experiences.  I am 
honored that you read them and hope they help to preserve this great music.  It 
is my way of putting something back to an industry that has been belly belly 
good to me, and still is treating me well.   It would be Hell to have to Work 
for a Living, ha ha .:)

Cheers, Amigos

Tom Wiggins